Released originally in 1969, Middle Eastern Rock is a unique, compelling fusion record from Armenian-American oud player John Berberian. The Rock East Ensemble, Beberian’s backing band, consists of the artist’s standard group, which specializes in traditional Armenian music with a jazz edge, and American session musicians who bring more of a rock sound. The results, which blend elements of psychedelia, free jazz, surf music, and various klezmer, African, and Middle Eastern textures, are dazzling, and are sure to thrill anyone with a taste for rare "outside" albums. ~Allmusic

After recording two thoroughly excellent LPs for the Mainstream label, Expressions East and Oud Artistry, John Berberian followed his benefactor, A&R man Peter Spargo, to the notorious Morris Levy's Roulette Records, where he waxed this standout album. Recorded in 1965 or 1966 and released around the same time, Music of the Middle East continues the oud master's progressive interpretations of traditional Armenian, Turkish, Greek, and Arabic material.

Nicholas Isherwood made his début as Lucifer in Stockhausen’s Donnerstag aus Licht at Covent Garden, at the age of 25, and has since collaborated closely with composers such as George Crumb, Hans Werner Henze, György Kurtág and Iannis Xenakis. His relationship with John Cage soon developed into what he in his liner notes to the disc calls ‘a love affair’. The composer Sylvano Bussotti has remarked that ‘since the passing of Cathy Berberian, Nicholas Isherwood is the singer who best understands the spirit of the music of John Cage’. On ARIA, Isherwood presents most of Cage’s music for solo voice that is not included in the composer’s Song Books, and most pieces are here recorded for the first time by a male singer. The programme covers 43 years, from A Chant with Claps from the early 1940s to Ryoanji and Sonnekus2 of the 1980s, and includes the celebrated Aria, here performed with a new multi-channel tape realization of Cage’s Fontana Mix, by the Italian composer Gianluca Verlingieri.

Catherine Anahid Berberian (July 4, 1925 – March 6, 1983) was an American soprano and composer. She interpreted contemporary avant-garde music composed, among others, by Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, John Cage, Henri Pousseur, Sylvano Bussotti, Darius Milhaud, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, and Igor Stravinsky. She also interpreted works by Claudio Monteverdi, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Kurt Weill, Philipp Zu Eulenburg, arrangements of songs by The Beatles, and folk songs from several countries and cultures. As a composer, she wrote Stripsody (1966), in which she exploits her vocal technique using comic book sounds (onomatopoeia), and Morsicat(h)y (1969), a composition for the keyboard (with the right hand only) based on Morse code.

Cathy Berberian (Attleboro, Massachusetts, July 4 1925 - Rome, Italy, March 6 1983) was a composer, mezzo-soprano singer, and vocalist. From 1950 to 1966 she was married to Luciano Berio, who deconstructed her voice in Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) (1958) and wrote his Circles (1960) and Recital I (for Cathy) (1972) for her. In addition, she worked in close collaboration with Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Hans Werner Henze and Igor Stravinsky. In this CD, Berberian exploits her groundbreaking, sometimes eardrum-shattering, vocal prowess to produce invariably astonishing results. This is particularly evident in the compositions by John Cage and Sylvano Bussotti as well as Berberian's own infamous "Stripsody." It is in these three pieces that this album serves up the filet mignon, although the Debussy songs and a Kurt Weill piece are quite a treat as well.

Cathy Berberian (Attleboro, Massachusetts, July 4 1925 - Rome, Italy, March 6 1983) was a composer, mezzo-soprano singer, and vocalist. From 1950 to 1966 she was married to Composer Luciano Berio, who deconstructed her voice in Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) (1958) and wrote his Circles (1960) and Recital I (for Cathy) (1972) for her. In addition, she worked in close collaboration with Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Hans Werner Henze and Igor Stravinsky.

John Hammond's latest album marks a major departure in one respect – for the first time in anyone's memory, he sings, but plays nothing on one of his records, while Little Charlie & the Nightcats, led by guitarist Charlie Baty, handle the guitars and everything else. The difference is very subtle, the playing maybe a little less flashy than Hammond's already restrained work – think of how good Muddy Waters sounded on the early-'60s records where he sang and didn't play. And that comparison is an apt one – even more than 35 years after he started, Hammond inevitably ends up sounding like its 1961 and he's working at Chess studios in Chicago, cutting songs between Muddy Waters sessions. Harpist Rick Estrin also contributes a smooth and eminently enjoyable original amid a brace of covers of blues standards. There is not a weak number here, and this band is a kick to listen to, sounding more naturally authentic than anybody in the 1990's has a right to (Baty's quiet pyrotechnics on "Lookin' for Trouble" would make this record worth owning, even if Hammond's singing and the rest of the songs weren't as good as they are).